I must admit that I have always considered fell runners to be slightly crazy. Why would you put your body through the torture of going up and down hills all the time? Yes the views are good but normally you are too shattered to appreciate them.
After my first fell race on New Year's Eve my opinion has not changed! The appalling weather did not help but this is probably the most challenging race shorter than a marathon that I have ever done.
The route takes you from the edge of Lyme Park up to the Bowstones ridge - a climb of about 900 feet over 3 miles! The forecast was for wind and rain and sure enough just before the start the rain started falling.
Once three cattle grids had been navigated we then climbed the first hill which was steep but nothing unusual. After a short fast flat section we then started up the real hill. This was sometimes so steep at times that it would probably have been more efficient to walk but my pride made me keep running. The rain was sheeting down and the wind blowing a gale at this stage and you do start to wonder why on earth you are there!
To add insult to injury I was "chicked" by the leading lady and she gradually pulled away throughout the race.
Finally soon after 3 miles we reached the top and it was mainly downhill from here. However the paths were so treacherous that you couldn't establish any kind of rhythm but just had to focus on staying on your feet.
In the final mile a group of runners came past me even though I was almost going at 6-minute-mile pace. I decided that my priority was to stay on my feet and let them go.
So I survived intact and finished in 27th place out of about 150.
I think if the weather had been OK I would have enjoyed it but the appalling weather meant it was a good workout and rich experience but not really fun.
And now I have DOMS from running down those hills!
I am a road runner it seems. I will leave the fell races to those even crazier than me!
Friday, 3 January 2014
Sunday, 22 December 2013
London Marathon training
After a month of recovery and a month of base training the party is over - back to marathon training!
This time I am doing P&D up to 70 miles a week schedule. I don't think the 55 miles a week schedule had enough 20+ miles long runs so hopefully this schedule will help me not to die on the last 6 miles.
Most fellow runners look at you with a mixture of awe and disbelief when you tell them you are running 70 miles a week. I guess most casual runners consider 30 miles a week to be a lot so I am interested to see what this schedule is going to do to me. There are a few runners in my club who train a lot less but are currently faster than me so it will be interesting to see if I go up the pecking order a bit by next April.
Two weeks into the schedule my legs are already feeling sluggish and I haven't done more that 55 miles a week yet! However I think fitting the runs into my lifestyle may be harder than completing the sessions. No slouching on the sofa watching Christmas movies for me!
I do sometimes wonder what sort of runner I would be if I had spent my teenage years running rather than playing computer games. Oh well, let's see what sort of an (almost) middle aged runner I can be on 70 miles a week!
Happy Christmas.
This time I am doing P&D up to 70 miles a week schedule. I don't think the 55 miles a week schedule had enough 20+ miles long runs so hopefully this schedule will help me not to die on the last 6 miles.
Most fellow runners look at you with a mixture of awe and disbelief when you tell them you are running 70 miles a week. I guess most casual runners consider 30 miles a week to be a lot so I am interested to see what this schedule is going to do to me. There are a few runners in my club who train a lot less but are currently faster than me so it will be interesting to see if I go up the pecking order a bit by next April.
Two weeks into the schedule my legs are already feeling sluggish and I haven't done more that 55 miles a week yet! However I think fitting the runs into my lifestyle may be harder than completing the sessions. No slouching on the sofa watching Christmas movies for me!
I do sometimes wonder what sort of runner I would be if I had spent my teenage years running rather than playing computer games. Oh well, let's see what sort of an (almost) middle aged runner I can be on 70 miles a week!
Happy Christmas.
Friday, 13 December 2013
Stockport 10
My races since the Chester Marathon in early October have all been poor to middling performance-wise so I had no idea how 7 minute/miling for 10 miles would feel going into the race.
I certainly could not complain about the weather - dry, about 7 degrees C and a light wind. Perfect for fast running really.
As a warm up I jogged the four miles to the race - a bit far by most standards for a warm up but as I didn't have the car there was little choice!
The race started with one and a half laps of the track at Woodbank Park and then does a loop around Offerton and Bredbury before finishing back on the track. Hills at halfway and near the end make things interesting!
I started off at a steady 7 min/mile pace which felt ridiculously easy! After the field settled down I slightly increased the pace and worked my way through the field.
During the big hill at halfway I increased the effort and overtook a whole bunch of people. Then I pretty much chilled out again, gradually overtaking people one by one until the famous New Zealand Rd hill at the 8.5 mile point. This hill isn't actually that fearsome (a gain of about 140 feet) but as it is near the end of the race and keeps going on for longer than you expect it does cause some suffering. However I had enough in my legs to increase the effort and burn some people off.
From the top of the hill it is just half a mile to the end so I kept the effort up and ended with a fun sprint finish over the last 100 metres.
I certainly could not complain about the weather - dry, about 7 degrees C and a light wind. Perfect for fast running really.
As a warm up I jogged the four miles to the race - a bit far by most standards for a warm up but as I didn't have the car there was little choice!
The race started with one and a half laps of the track at Woodbank Park and then does a loop around Offerton and Bredbury before finishing back on the track. Hills at halfway and near the end make things interesting!
I started off at a steady 7 min/mile pace which felt ridiculously easy! After the field settled down I slightly increased the pace and worked my way through the field.
During the big hill at halfway I increased the effort and overtook a whole bunch of people. Then I pretty much chilled out again, gradually overtaking people one by one until the famous New Zealand Rd hill at the 8.5 mile point. This hill isn't actually that fearsome (a gain of about 140 feet) but as it is near the end of the race and keeps going on for longer than you expect it does cause some suffering. However I had enough in my legs to increase the effort and burn some people off.
From the top of the hill it is just half a mile to the end so I kept the effort up and ended with a fun sprint finish over the last 100 metres.
I finished with a time of 68:13 and every mile was under 7 minutes.
This is exactly how I like to run races - start steady and then overtake for the whole race. While this approach may not get me the absolute best time possible it sure is a lot of fun!
It is fair to say I was pretty chuffed with this run. Finally I noticed some concrete benefit from the marathon training in the summer and it looks like my next half marathon should be under 90 minutes.
Now let's see what up to 70 miles a week marathon training for 18 weeks does to me!
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Base Training
It is not even Christmas yet and it is time to start thinking about training for spring marathons!
The London marathon is in the middle of April next year so if you do an 18 week plan for that training starts next week! Yikes.
In preparation for the P&D schedule I have been upping my mileage: over 40 miles two weeks ago and over 45 miles last week. Included in that was a tempo run and a 15 miler including hills so I should be able to cope with the first week of the schedule.
This Sunday is the Stockport 10 (miles.) There are two decent hills on the course: one at halfway and one towards the end so I am not confident of doing it in under 70 minutes but hopefully everything will come together on the day.
Tomorrow I am going to attempt 10 miles with 5 at 7 min/mile pace. If I can pull that off then I will feel confident about doing that pace for 10 miles in a race.
Now to try to get an early night for that 6 am run tomorrow!
The London marathon is in the middle of April next year so if you do an 18 week plan for that training starts next week! Yikes.
In preparation for the P&D schedule I have been upping my mileage: over 40 miles two weeks ago and over 45 miles last week. Included in that was a tempo run and a 15 miler including hills so I should be able to cope with the first week of the schedule.
This Sunday is the Stockport 10 (miles.) There are two decent hills on the course: one at halfway and one towards the end so I am not confident of doing it in under 70 minutes but hopefully everything will come together on the day.
Tomorrow I am going to attempt 10 miles with 5 at 7 min/mile pace. If I can pull that off then I will feel confident about doing that pace for 10 miles in a race.
Now to try to get an early night for that 6 am run tomorrow!
Sunday, 24 November 2013
Chest Infection
The week after my cross country race I did two hard sessions and then on my normal one mile jog to the gym on the Thursday I found that my chest just did not want to get out of first gear. This was a strange sensation - my legs were OK, my head was OK but my chest was not happy.
After a very slow and unpleasant jog to the gym and back I then had the next day off running. My chest was tight and sore and I was considering paying A&E a visit!
Thankfully the next day I felt better so the day after that I attempted a very slow 10 miler. I have never run 9 minute miles before with the feeling that that was all I could manage. Maybe this is how it feels to be over 70? Anyway my pace gradually picked up and I ended up averaging about 8:40 min/mile for the run.
Last week my chest gradually improved until yesterday I felt ready for another parkrun!
This went much better than my previous attempt, doing it in a solid 20:15 without feeling like I was quite giving 100% effort.
This morning I did 14 miles a 8 min/mile pace so things seem to be heading in the right direction.
Two weeks to go until Stockport 10 (miles) - a distance I have never raced before. In theory I should be able to 7 min/mile the whole thing but that seems hard to contemplate at the moment. Thankfully 7 minute miling in a race feels very different to 7 minute miling in training.
After a very slow and unpleasant jog to the gym and back I then had the next day off running. My chest was tight and sore and I was considering paying A&E a visit!
Thankfully the next day I felt better so the day after that I attempted a very slow 10 miler. I have never run 9 minute miles before with the feeling that that was all I could manage. Maybe this is how it feels to be over 70? Anyway my pace gradually picked up and I ended up averaging about 8:40 min/mile for the run.
Last week my chest gradually improved until yesterday I felt ready for another parkrun!
This went much better than my previous attempt, doing it in a solid 20:15 without feeling like I was quite giving 100% effort.
This morning I did 14 miles a 8 min/mile pace so things seem to be heading in the right direction.
Two weeks to go until Stockport 10 (miles) - a distance I have never raced before. In theory I should be able to 7 min/mile the whole thing but that seems hard to contemplate at the moment. Thankfully 7 minute miling in a race feels very different to 7 minute miling in training.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Wardrobe Malfunction
After a good week's training last week I felt ready for the second cross country event of the season on Sunday. The weather was a very pleasant 8 degrees C with sunshine.
After the normal warm-ups I was happily making my way over to the start area when a club-mate politely informed me that my vest was on back-to-front! Oops! This would have been no big deal to fix except I had to unpin my number and pin it on again with only a few minutes before the start of the race.
I only managed to pin the number on at the top when the gun went and I had to start at the back. Oh dear! That is a lesson learnt there!
Starting at the back is fun as you do a lot of overtaking but it does mean that in the narrow sections you get stuck behind slower runners. Because of this the first mile of the two mile lap was done in about 7:30 minutes whereas on the next two laps I did it in 7 minutes.
After a very wet couple of weeks the course was extremely muddy and many stretches were pure mud baths but this is part of the fun of winter cross country! The second mile also contained a very steep hill but thankfully it didn't seem to last too long.
I gradually worked my way through the field, overtaking people on the flat stretches and eventually worked my way up into the top half of the field. However due to my slow start I was only the eighth placed runner in my club in a time of just under 46 minutes.
The next cross county event clashes with a race I am doing so I have two months now until my next one. In this race I am going to attach myself to a club runner who has been finishing a minute ahead of me and see what I can do.
After the normal warm-ups I was happily making my way over to the start area when a club-mate politely informed me that my vest was on back-to-front! Oops! This would have been no big deal to fix except I had to unpin my number and pin it on again with only a few minutes before the start of the race.
I only managed to pin the number on at the top when the gun went and I had to start at the back. Oh dear! That is a lesson learnt there!
Starting at the back is fun as you do a lot of overtaking but it does mean that in the narrow sections you get stuck behind slower runners. Because of this the first mile of the two mile lap was done in about 7:30 minutes whereas on the next two laps I did it in 7 minutes.
After a very wet couple of weeks the course was extremely muddy and many stretches were pure mud baths but this is part of the fun of winter cross country! The second mile also contained a very steep hill but thankfully it didn't seem to last too long.
I gradually worked my way through the field, overtaking people on the flat stretches and eventually worked my way up into the top half of the field. However due to my slow start I was only the eighth placed runner in my club in a time of just under 46 minutes.
The next cross county event clashes with a race I am doing so I have two months now until my next one. In this race I am going to attach myself to a club runner who has been finishing a minute ahead of me and see what I can do.
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Marathon Recovery
Since my last post I have attempted a Parkrun, missed five days due to a virus and then just got back into hard training.
The Parkrun came three weeks after the marathon and I was hoping for a PB as this would be my first real attempt at a fast Parkrun since I started the marathon training.
However the night before the Parkrun I had felt the first signs of a chesty cough and although I felt OK on the Saturday morning before the race I soon started wheezing like an old man when I started running fast. My legs were fine but I just couldn't get the air circulating properly. In the end I was 30 seconds outside a PB but I can safely put that down to the virus.
You are not supposed to run when you are chesty so I then went four days without running. That was tough!
Last Thursday I did a 5 mile tempo, moving up the gears each mile from long slow run pace to 5K pace. The run felt great and pretty comfortable.
After 6 mile and 7 mile runs on Friday and Saturday I then did a longer progressive run today. This consisted of:
4 miles @ LSR pace
3 miles @ MP
2 miles @ HMP
1 mile @ 10K pace
2 miles @ recovery pace
I achieved all the required paces and felt controlled throughout. An awesome run.
I must now be fully recovered and can concentrate on my next race: a half marathon in January.
The Parkrun came three weeks after the marathon and I was hoping for a PB as this would be my first real attempt at a fast Parkrun since I started the marathon training.
However the night before the Parkrun I had felt the first signs of a chesty cough and although I felt OK on the Saturday morning before the race I soon started wheezing like an old man when I started running fast. My legs were fine but I just couldn't get the air circulating properly. In the end I was 30 seconds outside a PB but I can safely put that down to the virus.
You are not supposed to run when you are chesty so I then went four days without running. That was tough!
Last Thursday I did a 5 mile tempo, moving up the gears each mile from long slow run pace to 5K pace. The run felt great and pretty comfortable.
After 6 mile and 7 mile runs on Friday and Saturday I then did a longer progressive run today. This consisted of:
4 miles @ LSR pace
3 miles @ MP
2 miles @ HMP
1 mile @ 10K pace
2 miles @ recovery pace
I achieved all the required paces and felt controlled throughout. An awesome run.
I must now be fully recovered and can concentrate on my next race: a half marathon in January.
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